06 April 2005

Heroin Cure

Methadone is not a solution. I've represented a number of people who basically just switched from heroin to methadone and were just as hooked as before.

If there's something out there which is far, far better why the heck do we persist in the use of methadone clinics handing out a drug which is only slightly less evil than that which it is supposed to cure.

My clients are addicted to heroin. How they got there would probably be a good thing to be dealt with by treatment programs but that's not what I'm talking about.

If you do not deal with the addiction you won't stop an addict from going back to the drug. There is definitely massive pain in withdrawal; I've seen too many people going cold turkey in jail to have any delusions there. If the drug in this article were available and used in the weaning process it would be a far better than methadone. Methadone offers its own addictive high and therefore provides both the stick of withdrawal and the carrot of the high.

I dont mean to sound like some conspiracy theorist, but I will anyway. According to this article Methadone is made by Eli Lilly. Eli Lilly has received funding from many government agencies. In fact, here's a list of a few members of their Board of DirectorsA sample of those who have been on the Eli Lilly payroll includes:

Former President George Herbert Walker Bush (one-time member of the Eli Lilly board of directors) Former CEO of Enron, Ken Lay (one-time member of the Eli Lilly board of directors) George W. Bush’s former director of Management and Budget, Mitch Daniels (a former Eli Lilly vice president) George W. Bush’s Homeland Security Advisory Council member, Sidney Taurel (current CEO of Eli Lilly)Did you know that Zyprexa is one of their best selling drugs, selling over $2 Billion in 2002? That wouldn't be too surprising except that this drug is supposed to be prescribed for schizophrenia, but somehow it received approval from Medicaid to be dispensed for depression much like Prozac or Paxil.

I am about to recommence duties as a Drug Court lawyer. Drug Court is a diversionary court for non violent offenders at severe risk of jail as result of drug related offending. Heroin is the major drug of choice of clients. They do a deal with the court in return for reduced sentence (or suspension of same). On client's part, this involves about a year of intensive 'whole of life' drug treatment. Bupe is the number one choice of the medical people for the pharmaceotherapy side of treatment. It is very tightly controlled in Australia, but not as badly as New York. The clients really appreciate it and I haven't heard a bad thing about it from them when I worked in this court in the past. None of them are too keen on methadone, for the reasons alluded to in the posted article. The fact that only about a third of them make it through a year of court managed rehabilitation is more a sign of the social prejudices and disadvantages of the client base, and the 'motivations' this provides for relapse, than of the drug therapy they are on. From several years of observation, Bupe has it all over Methadone.

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Disclaimer

In case anyone out there needs this warning: This ain't legal advice. Everything in the blog is off the cuff and no one goes back and reads all the cases and statutes before blogging. The law may have changed; cases misread and misunderstood two years ago can still lead to a clinging misperception. Courts in your county, city, or State probably don't operate as described herein. Feel free to be inspired, but YOU MUST ALWAYS DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH OR HIRE A COMPETENT ATTORNEY TO DO SO because I haven't.